A new report released by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) says their investigation into “the world’s largest student loan company” has uncovered new evidence of “systemic mismanagement, failure, and abuse,” Forbes reported. The investigation claims that Maximus, which is a student loan servicer for 13 million federal student loan borrowers and operates under the name “Aidvantage,” allegedly engaged in the following: sloppy student loan servicing; unfair student loan debt collection; and unlawful wage garnishment and improper seizure of public benefits. In response to their investigation, CWA and SBPC launched AidvantageWatch, a project to spotlight alleged misconduct by Maximus and to ensure fair treatment for all student loan borrowers. Borrowers can visit AidvantageWatch online to share their experience with Maximus/Aidvantage and to learn how to alert regulators and enforcement officials if they encounter deceptive or misleading conduct by the student loan company. “This report contains multiple significant errors of fact and context that mischaracterize the work we do for the FSA, including inaccurately describing the number and nature of consumer complaints about our student loan servicing work and falsely asserting that we are a student debt collector,” Maximus spokesperson Eileen Cassidy Rivera said. “We are not.” According to Rivera, Maximus disputes several claims made in the report, including that Maximus: shouldn’t be called a student loan servicing company, but a “government contractor that provides back-office services for the government”; does not perform student loan debt collection and does not make the rules that determine when a student loan is in default; and doesn’t set the rules or policy for garnishment or seizure for student loans in default.
